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It's not like I expected any of those three named series to win, I was hoping to raise awareness around those series and their characters. But here, the rules just cockblocked fans.

Historically there's another reason for the (only series that have ended) rule and that's to avoid declaring a series as "Best of anything" when there's the possibility it might completely screw itself over in the next cour (in particular when it comes to story and plot, which can affect quite a lot of the genre categories too). Now I consider Psycho-Pass to be of too good budget and writing to screw up in any spectacular way, but I can not say the same for most series out there. For a lot of series what is recognized as a "masterpiece" may very well still only be promises by the half way point, and so there's always the possibility the series will fail to deliver; in which case all the hype will turn on it's head. Even if a series has somewhat proven itself, there's still the fact that half of it's plot is unfinished therefore "half of it's greatness" is still merely in the mind of it's fans—or the speculation discussion. This is not fair towards series that have fully proven their worth.

To give an example take Guilty Crown, based only on the first 3-4 episodes, you'd think it's somewhat on the same level as Psycho-Pass or some other relatively deep show. By the 8-9 episode though for a lot of people it had turned into a circus with very poor character development choices. Of course not saying that everyone hated it after that, but that's the point of the rule. All series are voted on when they are completely exposed for what they are, so that when people vote, they vote on their good parts and their bad parts, not just their good parts, and promises for more good parts.

On that note I don't see any alternative rule that is more fair at this time. We have no intention of making series eligible in an unfair way, such based on some branding, fandom, time slot or otherwise.

Since the whole split season deal seems to have become somewhat of a trend as of late I suppose these particular issues need to be resolved. A rule to allow ongoing series to be eligible to some ongoing (misc) category would be entirely possible, and I believe we did discuss this but no proper category was ever proposed. But as I explained, a rule to allow a series to be eligible in the standard categories is completely unfeasible (breaks too many rules, and principles). The category would have to be discussed, be completely dedicated to ongoing series, and the rule and it's scope would have to be discussed. As for it's merits I suppose it's merely "expose good series that are ongoing" as you put it (albeit slightly differently).

Feel free to VM or PM Haak with suggestions for such a category/rule to show recognition for ongoing shows. It's entirely within his power to make such a category happen either effective imediatly, next year, or never :P At this point it's also his decition what will happen on this matter.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

If we take that rule into account starting this year, then how eligble are series that have a sequel instantly greenlit after the last episode, without actually knowing if that sequel will start airing within 1 cour.
An example would be K or Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You

later edit: or series that have their 2nd season announced, but it takes more than 3 months after the last episode of the first season to air? Like Haiyore! Nyaruko-san or chihayafuru (mentioned in Qilin's reply below)

Haak pretty much calls it on all rule ambiguities so you'll have to wait for his final word on it, but...

Unless I'm mistaken the answer to all your questions is that a series is not counted only if the second season is a very direct continuation. So if the last season had a very clear ending (eg. K) or the next season is specially called out as an unrelated story, then the rule does not apply and the series is eligible. A series simply having a second seasons isn't enough to discount it. I think the easiest way to think about it is: in the absence of the other part can the series be considered a full story, with a clear ending. In the case of K, all main story arcs where closed and it had a very clear ending, so there shouldn't be any problem. I can't speak for HnG since I haven't really been following it.

In the case of series like Fate/Zero the issue was that the series did not end and the second part (second season) was just a literate continuation. This annoyed quite a lot of people last year because the vote felt dishonest, since obviously nobody knew the second half. If Psycho-Pass was eligible, the exact same would happen.

Feel free to VM or PM Haak with suggestions for such a category/rule to show recognition for ongoing shows. It's entirely within his power to make such a category happen either effective imediatly, next year, or never :P At this point it's also his decition what will happen on this matter.

I vaguely remember a category of 'Best New Show/Newcomer' that covers all ongoing shows (minus the long running ones). But that might have been a different site. I guess a better name would be 'Best Ongoing Show' or 'Most Promising Show'. But if it's just to promote Psycho Pass, then it might not be worth it.

But if it's just to promote Psycho Pass, then it might not be worth it.

There are different situations here:

Two-cours: That involves a lot of good shows this year, other than Psycho Pass (Shin Sekai Yori, Robotics;Notes, Sakurasou, Magi...)

Delayed episodes: Girls und Panzer

Long Running shows: Shirokuma Café, Uchuu Kyoudai...

I'm fine with two-cours and delayed episodes. But the longrunning shows can get you into strange situations. For example, if I were to vote for the ED "Bamboo Scramble" from Shirokuma Café, I'd have to vote for it next year, even though it ran for a month (March) this year. It also pretty much excludes never-ending shows (such as Naruto). (Not that I personally mind, since I don't watch those anyway.)

I'm fine with two-cours and delayed episodes. But the longrunning shows can get you into strange situations. For example, if I were to vote for the ED "Bamboo Scramble" from Shirokuma Café, I'd have to vote for it next year, even though it ran for a month (March) this year. It also pretty much excludes never-ending shows (such as Naruto). (Not that I personally mind, since I don't watch those anyway.)

Well, I should make mention I'm happy to have shows wait until when they finish before nominating them too. But the point about music is true. If I remember correctly, I have voted for OPs/EDs from long-running shows before, like Fairy Tail (a couple great EDs this year too). I even like OP1 from Shirokuma Cafe. Would be a shame to not count them.

It's not like I expected any of those three named series to win, I was hoping to raise awareness around those series and their characters. But here, the rules just cockblocked fans.

I am disappointed. Really.

You can do it next year, Cross Game was a spring 2009 4 cours show so it wasn't eligible for the 2009 awards but its fans made sure that it took right about everything in the 2010 awards.
If you want a more recent example take a look at how chihayafuru is getting plenty of nominations this year after not being eligible last year.

Thoughts:
This list would change a lot if Hunter X Hunter was eligible. I love Nisemonogatari but there weren't many categories that I could place it in (If there was a best scene or like best dialogue then). This year was fairly thin in comedies but the ones that I did nominate were really good ones. I honestly didn't finish as much anime as I wanted to this year.

It does seem logical to exempt OP end ED songs from the restriction, though. If, for example, you wanted to vote for Hunter X Hunter's first ED - which aired in 2011 - the earliest you could vote for it would be 2013? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Perhaps we could make a single-category exception.

I'd just like to ask a favour: If you're not going to use the feedback system and want to discuss the rules then please wait until after the Nomination Phase or Voting Phase. For all immediate questions about a series eligibility that you're unsure about then please PM me or felix.

We wanted to avoid discussing rules for the moment in order to avoid people getting dragged up into a discussion about rules and then not having enough time to consider their votes. For the time being let me clear up questions about the rules and why we have them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NK_500

EDIT: Girls und Panzer is not qualified and so is Medaka Box Abnormal. So I vote for its first season instead.

Medaka Box Abormal is not ineligible. Since both seasons ended airing in 2012, they have been combined.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

If we take that rule into account starting this year, then how eligble are series that have a sequel instantly greenlit after the last episode, without actually knowing if that sequel will start airing within 1 cour.
An example would be K or Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You

We are very unlikely to see an anime airing within one cour after a greenlit announcement so we can assume they count as separate seasons.

Quote:

later edit: or series that have their 2nd season announced, but it takes more than 3 months after the last episode of the first season to air? Like Haiyore! Nyaruko-san or chihayafuru (mentioned in Qilin's reply below)

Those are considered separate second seasons and do not affect the eligibility of the first season that ended airing this year.

In the case of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san and Chihayafuru the next season will air a whole half a year or more after their first seasons aired.

This is different to those that have a second season airing with only one cour because in those cases it is easy to see what has happened production-wise: They were originally meant to be a whole season and were just split up, and not simply due to seeing how sales of the first season would go before green-lighting a second season.

Felix has already covered why ongoing series are ineligible but just to reiterate, if we were to allow ongoing series' then that would mean letting shows that have finished compete with shows that haven't which could constitute as an unfair competition since we clearly judge unfinished anime by different criteria to finished shows so some might gain an unfair advantage over others. This might not be the case in a clearly impressionable series such as Psycho-Pass but there are plenty of of other lesser ongoing series that are actually quite good but have been held down due to not finishing, for example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyl

So how is that fair , if series that have their 1st half or even their 1st cour (incase of an announced split cour) aired 2011 like Guilty Crown, Fate/Zero etc. are allowed for 2012's nomination?

Because then it means all anime that are eligible have finished airing in that year: They all begin at the same starting line. There might be an issue with people remembering anime which have aired over the year and finished in March but this issue already exists with one cour anime that started within the year and finished in March and as totoum pointed it out, there's not a lot of evidence to suggest this is a significant factor anyway.

It does seem logical to exempt OP end ED songs from the restriction, though. If, for example, you wanted to vote for Hunter X Hunter's first ED - which aired in 2011 - the earliest you could vote for it would be 2013? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Perhaps we could make a single-category exception.

It's certainly worth considering, but this could end up running into issues with the automated counting system, so we'd have to check to make sure.

Color me quite puzzled about the ongoing series and/or series with an incoming second season being denied like that. Frankly, 12 episodes within the same year should be plenty enough, but that's just me (there go my votes for Jojo, Shin Sekai Yori etc...). That makes me wonder why do we even include Fate Zero again, since it is paradoxally the only series that actually benefit from this new rule but oh well.

It does seem logical to exempt OP end ED songs from the restriction, though. If, for example, you wanted to vote for Hunter X Hunter's first ED - which aired in 2011 - the earliest you could vote for it would be 2013? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Perhaps we could make a single-category exception.

It's certainly worth considering, but this could end up running into issues with the automated counting system, so we'd have to check to make sure.

The problem is as follows. To allow you to vote for OP/ED songs for ongoing shows means to forbid you to vote for them next year. So that means we have to take into account the timeframe in which the OP/ED aired. We might even have to take into account if the OP/ED was changed. It's honestly very stupidly complicated. If you have a OP/ED that covers the whole show, does that mean if it's illegible now, it's illegible next year? We would then have series that in the year they are eligible have no eligible OP/ED songs. What about OP/ED that are a remix? do those count as one, or two separate ones. What about opening that turn into endings and vice versa.

From technical standpoint I can make it happen (with a little bit of work). But it would be extremely troublesome to verify by hand; and I'd like to always keep that as an option at our disposal. I also don't want to have to explain such convoluted logic when people start asking why they can't vote for OP/ED of series X that is eligible that year.

A few suggestions, if I may: a best seiyuu category would be nice, as would a best studio. As discussed earlier, a category to reward on-going shows is also a must (how are we ever going to reward very long running shows otherwise?). I'm so sad I can't vote for Jojo anywhere...

And what happened to the fanservice/ecchi category? There are far more anime you can put in this category than in horror every year, so it doesn't make sense to remove it. Like it or not, it's a major "genre".

Unfortunately, there's just no perfect way to handle the "2 Cours show that begins in the Fall" situation. Each solution has its own distinct pros and cons.

Let's look at the possible solutions:

1) Let a show be nominated in every year that it's airing. Reckoner already explained the serious problems with this. Having the exact same two-cour show win the same category(s) two years in a row would just look bad, imo. Not to mention I think it's a bit unfair for some shows to be able to win two years in a row while other shows are only able to win one year. If a show is an actual sequel, then that's different of course, but that's not the case for new two-cour shows that start airing in the Fall.

2) Shows are only eligible in the year that they started airing. This obviously would be silly, since then some shows would never be voted for on the basis of their entirety.

3) Push back the awards until Spring, after two cour Fall shows end. It was felt that this would seriously disadvantage one cour shows for last Winter, since those shows would be over a year old by the time people could vote on them. Plus, it just seems more fitting for annual awards to be situated as close to January 1st as possible. Also, even with this solution some shows could "fall through the cracks" (like a split cour show that starts in the Fall).

4) Shows are only eligible in the year that they finished airing. This is what we opted for. It is unfortunate in some ways - I myself would love to nominate Psycho-Pass and Shin Sekai Yori in some categories - But those shows will have their chance next year.

Unfortunately, there's just no perfect way to handle the "2 Cours show that begins in the Fall" situation. Each solution has its own distinct pros and cons.

Let's look at the possible solutions:

1) Let a show be nominated in every year that it's airing. Reckoner already explained the serious problems with this. Having the exact same two-cour show win the same category(s) two years in a row would just look bad, imo. Not to mention I think it's a bit unfair for some shows to be able to win two years in a row while other shows are only able to win one year. If a show is an actual sequel, then that's different of course, but that's not the case for new two-cour shows that start airing in the Fall.

2) Shows are only eligible in the year that they started airing. This obviously would be silly, since then some shows would never be voted for on the basis of their entirety.

3) Push back the awards until Spring, after two cour Fall shows end. It was felt that this would seriously disadvantage one cour shows for last Winter, since those shows would be over a year old by the time people could vote on them. Plus, it just seems more fitting for annual awards to be situated as close to January 1st as possible. Also, even with this solution some shows could "fall through the cracks" (like a split cour show that starts in the Fall).

4) Shows are only eligible in the year that they finished airing. This is what we opted for. It is unfortunate in some ways - I myself would love to nominate Psycho-Pass and Shin Sekai Yori in some categories - But those shows will have their chance next year.

I would have to point out that such things like "it won twice in a row" should not matter. If the show was that good, than it deserves to win both times.

Indeed, especially that if a given fall series managed to remain fresh in people mind the next year, that either means 1) this series was THAT good 2) the second year was just quite poor in some aspects.